Go ahead and show them how interactive content will pay for itself.
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When my sister was 10 years old, she wanted a puppy more than anything.
My parents, worried they'd be left doing all the work (like walking, feeding, and grooming), struck up a deal: If my sister could make a compelling case for getting a dog, they’d consider it. In the end, my sister knocked it out of the park (even making a chart for every dog-related chore), and we've now had our dog Rudy for nearly 11 years.
The same rules apply in business. You want some cool new thing? Make a case for it! Here’s what I want and why, here are a few options to get us on this path, here’s what they’ll cost, and here’s the potential return on the investment. Basically, any executive is going to want to know some version of this: What’s in it for us?
Making a strong business case for interactive content is not as complicated or as daunting as it may seem. Tyghe Trimble is the editor-in-chief of Fatherly, a digital media brand now owned by Bustle Media Group. Fatherly creates interactive content for editorial purposes, creating more engaging and sophisticated versions of its news, advice, and other stories. He knew premium content would pique the interest of his brand’s advertisers, and so the business case Trimble assembled for his interactive content tool—we can sell more—wasn’t an especially complex one. “Interactive content is a way to make award-winning content actually look award-winning,” Trimble said. “Plus, it was a cheaper solution than creating custom tools that may or may not have audience benefits.”
Ready to start assembling a business case? Here's some helpful expert insight, real-life stories, and relevant concepts to help you along.
So, what’s in it for us?
Begin the proposal by establishing the benefits of interactive content. The main one being: why interactive content pays for itself. If you have relevant, supporting statistics from your company’s marketing efforts, share them. Perhaps you’ve created interesting visual content that performed better than average in the past? Are your competitors having success creating interactive content? Maybe your company is losing business, or audience, because it’s not creating it? For an editorial brand, would advertisers pay more for interactive content? Would they be more willing to create custom branded content if interactivity were part of the deal?
Gather all the data you can to support your case and underline the advantages. Remember, executives want concrete, measurable outcomes. They need numerical evidence that your proposal will bring a substantial return on their investment.
According to a 2023 HubSpot survey, 48% of marketers were already harnessing the power of AI for content creation. Fast forward to 2024, and the momentum is unstoppable, with a remarkable 88% of marketers either maintaining or ramping up their AI investments. And that's not all; 15% are ready to take the leap and try their hand at AI for the first time.
This surge in AI interest means one thing: the competition is heating up. Your run-of-the-mill blog posts and PDF infographics might find it tough to stand out from the crowd. On the other hand, interactive content garners twice the engagement compared to static content, presenting a persuasive option.
When outlining costs, remember to think of both the price of the tools you're considering and the potential costs if you just stick with what you're doing now. That way, you get the whole picture and can make a smarter decision. For example, what’s a good reputation worth? We might not be able to give you an accurate number, but we can tell you it’s a lot more valuable than a bad one (or no reputation at all). Interactive content looks sophisticated, and it’s fun, and it makes a good impression on the audience that experiences it. It makes your brand look good and creates positive associations with consumers. Part of your case for interactive should acknowledge those associations and that effective marketing is a blend of science and art.
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What’s the opportunity cost?
A case study
Countless creatives before you have built budgets, evaluated options, and made decisions that were best for them. Here is a story of a marketer who has been down this path before.
Matt Field is the creative director at a company called ROAD iD, an e-commerce brand that makes ID tags for runners, cyclists, and those with specific medical needs. Those tags are important for adventurers and at-risk individuals who might need personalized assistance in an emergency. Since the company sells direct to consumers on its website, a sleek and streamlined online experience is paramount.
Field’s team was evaluating two interactive content creation tools, one of which was Ceros. He initially found it challenging to make the case for a software purchase that didn’t have a crystal-clear ROI like most moves in the uber-trackable e-commerce space.
"We knew we needed to make an investment in the experience of our site, because we knew it was going to have long-reaching impacts."
Matt Field, Ceros user
Calculate the costs of your interactive content
"Most decisions we make, we can see its impact in dollars,” Field said. “Interactive content was one with a little bit more of a gray area. We knew we needed to make an investment in the experience of our site, because we knew it was going to have long-reaching impacts, but we couldn’t necessarily track all of them.”
So, although the other tool had more restrictive capabilities, it offered what Field described as “some crazy pricing” to get ROAD iD to sign up. And given that interactive content was a brand new venture for the company, with no pre-existing budget or clear revenue goal, ROAD iD essentially decided to try the cheaper one first and check back in later.
After a few months, Field’s team wasn’t happy with the capabilities of the other tool; it was limited in a way that he didn’t fully understand at first. So, the creatives went back to their boss and laid out the situation—their current tool was limiting their capability, and if they had Ceros, they could have (and would have) been more bold.
"After a year of using (the other tool), the case was kinda made on its own,” Field said. “Ceros was more robust, and even though it was more expensive, we knew it was worth it.”
Ceros is making it easy to figure out exactly how much it’ll cost to create the type of interactive content you’re interested in. Whether you use in-house resources or an external agency, this handy calculator makes it simpler than ever to understand your investment. Just plug in some numbers and see for yourself!
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Once you’ve established the benefits of interactive content— i.e., better engagement, a positive reputation from creating an exceptional web experience — think about the various solutions that could help you produce it. As you probably know by now, Ceros is an interactive design platform and one of those options. In fact, it’s our personal favorite. But there are others that may be a better fit for your company.
Let's dig deep into your memory for a phrase from your freshman year economic principles course: “opportunity cost.” That’s the cost of the decision we don’t make, the loss that we incur when we miss a chance to benefit.
So let’s say the cost of a gym membership is $100 per month; to use the gym, you pay the fee. Duh, right? But what’s the cost of not going to the gym? While you might save $100 per month, the cost of not working out might be a less healthy, more stressed version of you. And so you might find the compounding effects of those emotional ramifications to make the gym worth it.
Now, let’s bring it back to interactive content. Let’s say that it will cost your company around $40,000 per year to create and scale an interactive operation. That might sound like a lot of money, until you consider the cost of not pursuing interactive content, too. Are you coming up short on your marketing goals each year? What kinds of wins are you missing out on by not creating more engaging pitch decks or RFPs? Is your existing web team stretched too thin? How much is an extra developer going to set you back? If your content was more interesting, could you save money promoting it? What kind of ad revenue are you sacrificing by publishing only static content?
When you’re outlining costs, note both the costs of the tools you’re considering and the costs you might incur by choosing the status quo. By understanding both, you get a much fuller picture, and thus you can make a more informed decision.
Request a demo
case better
Admit it. You're ready to get interactive. Click now to access the full guide.
Get the guide
Start making interactive content. Click now to find out how Ceros can help.
Request a demo
What is interactive content?
part 1
Build a team of allies
part 2
Anticipate your design needs
part 3
Make a business case for better content
part 4
Build, track and scale interactive content
part 5
This five step guide gives you everything you need to introduce interactive content to your organization.
Get interactive:
the complete series
Read more
What is interactive content?
part 1
Read more
Build a team of allies
part 2
Read more
Anticipate your design needs
part 3
Read more
Make a business case for better content
part 4
Build, track and scale interactive content
Read more
part 5
This five step guide gives you everything you need to introduce interactive content to your organization.
Get interactive: the complete series
